Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has challenged Sir Keir Starmer over plans to means test the Winter Fuel Allowance. But during today’s PMQs, the prime minister said his government’s first job was to audit the books “and what we found was a £22bn black hole". Report by Czubalam. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The Government are about making choices, and the new Prime Minister has made a choice.
00:05He has chosen to take the winter fuel allowance away from low-income pensioners and give that
00:11money to certain unionised workforces in inflation-busting pay rises. Why did the Prime Minister choose
00:20train drivers over Britain's vulnerable pensioners?
00:26This Government were elected to clear up the mess left by the party officers and to
00:32bring about the change that the country desperately needs. Our first job was to audit the books,
00:39and what we found was a £22 billion black hole. It is no good them complaining. Richard
00:47Hughes, the chair of the OBR, was very clear. He described it as one of the largest year
00:52overspends against forecasts outside of the pandemic—his words. So we have had to take
00:59tough decisions to stabilise the economy and repair the damage, including targeting winter
01:05fuel payments while protecting pensioners. Eight hundred thousand pensioners are not
01:10taking up pension credit. We intend to turn that around. We are going to align housing
01:14benefit and pension credit—something the previous Government deferred year after year
01:19after year. Because of our commitment to the triple lock, pensions are projected to
01:24increase by over £1,000 in the next five years.